The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) has released their estimate of the district by district effect of the major K-12 funding provisions included in the signed-into-law 2019-21 state budget. The numbers in the memo represent the estimated change to prior law.
The memo includes analysis of the following provisions:
While a good deal of attention has been paid to the governor’s vetoes pertaining to per pupil aid and supplemental per pupil aid, there are a number of other vetoes that will impact schools that school leaders should be aware of. Here are two that will have the biggest impact on school districts:
Personal Computing Devices: A partial veto by the governor effectively eliminates funding (roughly $9.2 million annually) for the personal electronic computing devices grant program effective July 1, 2019. (more…)
In signing the 2019-21 state budget into law, Gov. Evers used his partial veto authority in a way that increases per pupil categorical aid payments above the level the Legislature had provided. As a result, school districts will receive per pupil aid payments equal to $742 per pupil in each year (i.e., in both 2019-20 and 2020-21). The governor’s partial veto also has the effect of “front-loading” the per pupil aid increase compared to the way the Legislature provided this aid, which would have spread the increase evenly over two years (see charts below). (more…)
“We view the budget signed today by Gov. Tony Evers as a foundation to build for the future.
“We understand that split-party control of state government requires compromise to get a budget passed. We also understand that state policy makers face many worthy and competing priorities in addition to K-12 schools that must be addressed within the confines of available revenues.
“We are pleased the Legislature provided a solid foundation for K-12 schools upon which the governor has been able to build.
“On behalf of school boards across the state, we thank the governor for using his veto pen to improve the 2019-21 state budget for K-12 schools.”
Concluding a state budget process that began in late February with Gov. Evers’ first budget address and the release of his proposal, the governor today signed the state budget into law with several partial vetoes.
For K-12 education, the biggest news is that, through the veto process, the budget now invests about $85 million more in per pupil aid to school districts compared to the version passed by the legislature. The governor’s veto increases per pupil aid payments to a total of $742 per pupil in 2019-20 and 2020-21. (Districts received a total of $654 per pupil in 2018-19.) Compared to the $25 per pupil increases in this aid in each year that were approved by the Legislature, the increase under the governor’s veto is $63 per pupil higher in 2019-20 and $38 per pupil higher in 2020-21. As a result, districts will be able to increase their spendable revenues by $263 per pupil in 2019-20 and by $242 per pupil in 2020-21. (more…)